Alliance to Develop Computerized Orthopedic Surgery

A collaboration to jointly develop computer-assisted surgery (CAS) software and instrumentation for orthopedics in an open platform environment has been announced by Smith & Nephew Orthopedics (Memphis, TN, USA) and Medtronic Surgical Navigation Technologies (SNT, Louisville, CO, USA).

Image-guided computer-assisted surgery uses highly accurate cameras and software to track the movements of the bones and instruments during surgery. Smith & Nephew believes these efforts will promote minimally invasive and more-accurate knee, hip, and trauma surgery. By developing technologies that can be used on multiple hardware systems, they also expect to provide an economic benefit to hospitals and health-care systems. Smith & Nephew and Medtronic SNT recently collaborated to develop the first fluoroscopy-based image-guided computer-assisted total knee procedure. They say an estimated 25% of all orthopedic procedures will utilize computer-assisted surgical technology within the next five to seven years.

"We look forward to further development of a successful relationship with Medtronic,” says Scott Elliot, vice president of computer-assisted surgery at Smith & Nephew. "Our open-platform, computer-assisted surgical strategy should speed the acceptance of CAS tools, thus allowing more surgeons around the world to provide this high standard and rapidly evolving care to their patients.”




Related Links:
Smith & Nephew
Medtronic